Neuroblast

Mex3A is an RNA binding protein that can also act as an E3 ubiquitin ligase to control gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. In intestinal adult stem cells, MEX3A is required for cell self-renewal and when overexpressed, MEX3A can contribute to support the proliferation of different cancer cell types. In a completely different context, we found mex3A among the genes expressed in neurogenic niches of the embryonic and adult fish brain and, notably, its expression was downregulated during brain aging...

Combinatorial spatial and temporal patterning of stem cells is a powerful mechanism for the generation of neural diversity in insect and vertebrate nervous systems. In the developing Drosophila medulla, the neural stem cells of the outer proliferation center (OPC) are spatially patterned by the mutually exclusive expression of three homeobox transcription factors: Vsx1 in the center of the OPC crescent (cOPC), Optix in the main arms (mOPC), and Rx in the posterior tips (pOPC). These spatial factors act together with a temporal cascade of transcription factors in OPC neuroblasts to specify the greater than 80 medulla cell types...

Olfactory dysfunction could be an early indicator of cognitive decline in type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, whether obesity affects olfaction in people with T2D is unclear. This question needs to be addressed, because most people with T2D are obese. Importantly, whether different contributing factors leading to obesity (e.g., different components of diet or gain in weight) affect specific olfactory functions and underlying mechanisms is unknown. We examined whether two T2D-inducing obesogenic diets, one containing a high proportion of fat (HFD) and one with moderate fat and high sugar (Western diet, WD), affect odor detection/discrimination, odor-related learning, and olfactory memory in the mouse...

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant pathogenic condition that causes progressive degeneration of GABAergic neurons in the brain. The abnormal expansion of the CAG repeats in the exon 1 of the Huntingtin gene (HTT gene) has been associated with the onset and progression of movement disorders, psychiatric disturbance and cognitive decline in HD. Microglial activation and reactive astrogliosis have been recognized as the key pathogenic cellular events in the brains of HD subjects. Besides, HD has been characterized by induced quiescence of neural stem cells (NSCs), reactive neuroblastosis and reduced survival of newborn neurons in the brain...

PURPOSE: To summarize the clinical features and survival of Chinese patients with trilateral retinoblastoma (TRb), which may help guide early diagnosis and more effective treatments. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. METHODS: Clinical records of patients with TRb were reviewed to identify clinical characteristics and outcomes. The TRb was diagnosed mainly based on imaging findings of an enlarged solid pineal or sellar mass. Mutation screening was performed using peripheral blood leucocyte DNA from 3 patients...

Paediatric cancers often resemble trapped developmental intermediate states that fail to engage the normal differentiation programme, typified by high-risk neuroblastoma arising from the developing sympathetic nervous system. Neuroblastoma cells resemble arrested neuroblasts trapped by a stable but aberrant epigenetic programme controlled by sustained expression of a core transcriptional circuit of developmental regulators in conjunction with elevated MYCN or MYC (MYC). The transcription factor ASCL1 is a key master regulator in neuroblastoma and has oncogenic and tumour suppressive activities in several other tumour types...

BACKGROUND: Bipolar Disorder (BD) is associated with a decrease in cellular resilience. Despite the half a century old discovery of lithium's efficacy for the treatment of BD, its exact mechanisms remain elusive. Accumulating data suggests lithium's cytoprotective properties involve the modulation of several UPR proteins, such as GRP78. Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF) is an endoplasmic reticulum resident protein that regulates proteostasis through directly interacting with GRP78...

The Nucleus Basalis of Meynert (NBM) is the main source of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain to be crucially involved in cognitive functions and whose degeneration correlates with cognitive decline in major degenerative pathologies as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. However, knowledge concerning NBM neurons derived from human brain is very limited to date. We recently characterized a primary culture of proliferating neuroblasts isolated from the human fetal NBM (hfNBM) as immature cholinergic neurons expressing the machinery to synthetize and release acetylcholine...

Microtus ochrogaster is a rodent with a monogamous reproductive strategy characterized by strong pair bond formation after 6 h of mating. Here, we determine whether mating-induced pair bonding increases cell proliferation in the subventricular zone (SVZ), rostral migratory stream (RMS), and dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus in male voles. Males were assigned to one of the four groups: (1) control: males were placed alone in a clean cage; (2) social exposure to a female (SE m/f): males that could see, hear, and smell a sexually receptive female but where physical contact was not possible, because the animals were separated by an acrylic screen with small holes; (3) social exposure to a male (SE m/m): same as group 2 but males were exposed to another male without physical contact; and (4) social cohabitation with mating (SCM): males that mated freely with a receptive female for 6 h...

AHNAK nucleoprotein 2 (AHNAK2) has been emerged as a crucial protein for neuroblast differentiation and cell migration, thereby involving in the development of various cancers. However, the specific molecular mechanism of AHNAK2 in lung adenocarcinoma is inconclusive. By accessing to the Oncomine dataset and GEPIA website, a higher expression level of AHNAK2 was observed in lung adenocarcinoma tissue samples. Overall survival (OS) curve plotted by Kaplan-Meier method showed that up-regulation of AHNAK2 was related with poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma patients...

N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is a component of the ayahuasca brew traditionally used for ritual and therapeutic purposes across several South American countries. Here, we have examined, in vitro and vivo, the potential neurogenic effect of DMT. Our results demonstrate that DMT administration activates the main adult neurogenic niche, the subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, promoting newly generated neurons in the granular zone. Moreover, these mice performed better, compared to control non-treated animals, in memory tests, which suggest a functional relevance for the DMT-induced new production of neurons in the hippocampus...

Neuronal precursor cells undergo self-renewing and non-self-renewing asymmetric divisions to generate a large number of neurons of distinct identities. In Drosophila, primary precursor neuroblasts undergo a varying number of self-renewing asymmetric divisions, with one known exception, the MP2 lineage, which undergoes just one terminal asymmetric division similar to the secondary precursor cells. The mechanism and the genes that regulate the transition from self-renewing to non-self-renewing asymmetric division or the number of times a precursor divides is unknown...

Cell migration is a dynamic process that entails extensive protein synthesis and recycling, structural remodeling, and considerable bioenergetic demand. Autophagy is one of the pathways that maintain cellular homeostasis. Time-lapse imaging of autophagosomes and ATP/ADP levels in migrating cells in the rostral migratory stream of mice revealed that decreases in ATP levels force cells into the stationary phase and induce autophagy. Pharmacological or genetic impairments of autophagy in neuroblasts using either bafilomycin, inducible conditional mice, or CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing decreased cell migration due to the longer duration of the stationary phase...

The discovery that new neurons are produced in some regions of the adult mammalian brain is a paradigm-shift in neuroscience research. These new-born cells are produced from neuroprogenitors mainly in the subventricular zone at the margin of the lateral ventricle, subgranular zone in the hippocampal dentate gyrus and in the striatum, a component of the basal ganglia, even in humans. In the human hippocampus, neuroblasts are produced even in elderlies. The regulation of adult neurogenesis is a complex phenomenon involving a multitude of molecules, neurotransmitters and soluble factors released by different sources including glial cells...

Microglia activation toward M1 pro-inflammatory phenotype represents one of the earliest events of neurological disorders. Therefore, reducing microglia activation should inhibit neuroinflammation, thereby delaying the progression of neurodegeneration. Recently, we pointed out the role of STAT1 signaling in hypoxia-induced M1 activation and proposed STAT1 as a suitable molecular target for the prevention and treatment of neurodegeneration. Myricetin is a natural flavonoid that exhibits a specific anti-STAT1 activity correlated with its direct interaction with STAT1 protein itself...

There is a growing body of evidence that interventions like cognitive training or exercises prior to the manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptoms may decelerate cognitive decline. Nonetheless, evidence of prevention or a delay of dementia is still insufficient. Using OXYS rats as a suitable model of sporadic AD and Wistar rats as a control, we examined effects of cognitive training in the Morris water maze on neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus in presymptomatic (young rats) and symptomatic (adult rats) periods of development of AD signs...

BACKGROUND: It can be challenging to recognize undifferentiated/immature ganglion cells, especially single forms. Ganglion cells and glia are derived from enteric neural crest cells (ENCCs), a group of autonomic nervous system (ANS)-lineage neural crest progenitors that PHOX2B regulates. Phox2b is an excellent marker for neoplastic and non-neoplastic ANS cells (eg, peripheral neuroblastic tumors [pNTs]). We hypothesized that Phox2b immunohistochemical staining (IHC) would also be useful for detecting ENCCs...

Cellular senescence has classically been associated with aging. Intriguingly, recent studies have also unraveled key roles for senescence in embryonic development, regeneration, and reprogramming. Developmental senescence has been reported during embryonic development in different organisms and structures, such as the endolymphatic duct during inner ear development of mammals and birds. However, there is no study addressing the possible role of senescence on otic neurogenesis. TGFβ/SMAD is the best-known pathway linked to the induction of developmentally programmed cell senescence...

Chronic stress can alter the immune system, adult hippocampal neurogenesis and induce anxiety- and depressive-like behaviour in rodents. However, previous studies have not discriminated between the effect(s) of different types of stress on these behavioural and biological outcomes. We investigated the effect(s) of repeated injection vs. permanent social isolation on behaviour, stress responsivity, immune system functioning and hippocampal neurogenesis, in young adult male mice, and found that the type of stress exposure does indeed matter...

Stem cells including cancer stem cells (CSC) divide symmetrically or asymmetrically. Usually symmetric cell division makes two daughter cells of the same fate, either as stem cells or more differentiated progenies; while asymmetric cell division (ACD) produces daughter cells of different fates. In this review, we first provide an overview of ACD, and then discuss more molecular details of ACD using the well-characterized Drosophila neuroblast system as an example. Aiming to explore the connections between cell heterogeneity in cancers and the critical need of ACD for self-renewal and generating cell diversity, we then examine how cell division symmetry control impacts common features associated with CSCs, including niche competition, cancer dormancy, drug resistance, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and its reverse process mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET), and cancer stem cell plasticity...